Calls to build museum for the archeological city of Ur in Nasseriya

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: Local authorities in Thi-Qar province have last week received responsibility for the archeological city of Ur that has been under the U.S. forces’ control since 2003. However, this historical city, located in southwestern Nasseriya, that boasts the largest number of archeological sites all over the world – about 1400 registered sites – needs to have a museum as called by specialists in order to preserve the city’s heritage and invigorate tourism. “We do not have adequate government support for building this museum and that was why we resorted to the Italian side. An understanding was reached in 2004 to build a 14-hall museum and attached warehouses,” Dr. Amira Aidan, the director of Iraqi museums department, told IraqiNews.com news agency. The chief of the Italian reconstruction team, for her part, told IraqiNews.com that her squad was working on restoring the existing museum and building new halls in line with the most updated engineering designs, adding the obstacles facing the project are sheer administrative ones that should be removed soon. The old museum in Ur had been established in 1967 and was open for visitors three years later. “We have an agreement with the Italian side to build a new museum with halls displaying all the key historical stages in this place starting from the earliest civilization until the Islamic civilization,” Abdulameer al-Hamadani, the Thi-Qar antiquities department director, said. Monuments in Thi-Qar are marked by their serial order of the different historical eras the al-Rafidain valley has gone through. Some of the antiquities date back to the Sumerian age, others to the Babylonians, the Sassanids and the Islamic era. The province also boasts the oldest archeological hill ever – al-Owaili Hill, which dates back to the year 6,000 BC. Of the most important sites in the city of Ur, described as sacred in the Old Testament, is the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham. It is also the site of the First Flood. Excavations from 1922 to 1934 were funded by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania and led by the archeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley. A total of about 1,850 burials were uncovered, including 16 that were described as “royal tombs” containing many valuable artifacts, including the Standard of Ur. Most of the royal tombs were dated to about 2600 BC. The finds included the unlooted tomb of a queen thought to be Queen Puabi – the name is known from a cylinder seal found in the tomb, although there were two other different and unnamed seals found in the tomb. Nasseriya, the capital city of Thi-Qar province, lies 380 km south of Baghdad. AmR (S) 1